$ pwd /home/danielt/tmp/Limnoria $ dh_make For dh_make to find the package name and version, the current directory needs to be in the format of -. Alternatively use the _-p flag using the format _ to override it. The directory name you have specified is invalid! Your current directory is: /extra/danielt/tmp/Limnoria Perhaps you could try going to directory where the sources are? Please note that this change is necessary ONLY during the initial Debianization with dh_make. When building the package, dpkg-source will gracefully handle almost any upstream tarball. $ dh_make --packagename python3-limnoria_0.83.4.1 Type of package: (single, indep, library, python) [s/i/l/p]?